This invention relates in general to a mail indicator, and more particularly to an indicator which is attached to a standard rural or cluster mailbox for automatically signaling or indicating when the mail has been delivered by a mail carrier.
In rural and suburban areas, the mail carrier delivers mail to mailboxes located adjacent to the roads and streets which are usually a substantial distance from the houses. The standard rural type mailbox provides a pivotal flag on its left side which may be raised to indicate to the mail carrier that there is outgoing mail for him or her to pick up. Although the mail carrier normally lowers the flag after the mail is picked up, this does not serve very well as an indicator that incoming mail has been delivered because a person very infrequently places outgoing mail in the mailbox and raises the flag for pick up. Furthermore, if the flag had never been raised for the outgoing mail to be picked up in the first place, there would be nothing to indicate whether the mail carrier had already been along his or her route. The best solution to this problem is to provide the standard mailbox with an additional signaling or flag type of device which automatically indicates that the mail carrier has opened the mailbox door and deposited the mail. Such a delivery indicator is highly desirable because no one, particularly the elderly, enjoys making unnecessary trips to a far distant mailbox, especially through the cold, heat, rain, snow or other severe weather conditions.
Several different types of mail delivery indicators have been previously proposed but, for the most part, they have not been put to wide use by the general public because they are either unduly complex, not seen easily from a distance, or constructed of flimsy and unacceptable materials, such as plastic. In general, the following exemplary patents disclose these types of mail delivery signaling devices. U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,783, granted to Chambers and entitled "Mailbox Signal Device", discloses a flag which pivots to a vertical position underneath the mailbox when the door is opened.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,342, granted to Fluck and entitled "Street Mail Box Signal Device", discloses a flag pivotally attached to the mailbox door by linkage which move it to an upright position. U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,472, granted to Hammons and entitled "Mail Delivery Signaling Flag", discloses a pivotal flag with a weighted end which causes it to swing to a vertical position when released by opening of the mailbox door. U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,028, granted to Barnes and entitled "Delivery Signal Device For A Mailbox", discloses a flag mounted by a coil spring and having a cord normally holding the flag in a horizontal position but being released by opening of the mailbox door to permit it to move to a vertical position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,482,543, granted to Guidos and entitled "Mail Box Signal Flag", discloses a flag mounted on one end of an elongated coil spring and the other end attached to the side of the mailbox. A catch is attached to the flag and normally engages a bracket secured to the mailbox door for holding the flag in a horizontal position. U.S. Pat. No. 2,433,940, granted to Weaver and entitled "Mailbox Signal", discloses a signal rod attached to the top of a mailbox by a coil spring at one of its ends and the other end engaging the mailbox door to normally hold the rod in a horizontal position.
While the above patents show pertinent mail delivery indicators, none are as reliable in operation nor sturdy in construction as the mail delivery indicator of applicant's invention. The advantages and improvements of applicant's invention over these prior mail delivery signaling devices will become more evident from the following specification and detail description of the drawings.